Tasks and Elements
"Hold on, I may be getting too excited for nothing..." Ender said while holding his chin, "Is there any way I can prove that this is real? Maybe it's just in my head and I'm in some sort of coma."
Ender kept his eyes closed for some minutes trying to find a way to reality-check everything. He tried, but the only plausible way would be to use the system, which was contradictory. Nonetheless, he decided to go for it.
"I remember there was a skill, what was it... Claws of Fear?"
The moment Ender muttered those words, a sound similar to that of a smoke bomb going off came from his hands. When he looked downwards his hands had a peculiar grey and red smoke around them, with ten long, black claws instead of nails.
[Warning: For each finger that has been turned 1 A.E Point will be depleted instantly, followed by 1 A.E Point every second. Using both hands will grant a 50% bonus strength.]
He started feeling somewhat drowsy, and he took three seconds to deactivate the ability after reading the text, "Yeah it makes sense but still, I have little to no A.E Points... System."
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Name: Ender Rialto
Age: 17
Level: 0
I. Status: ?
Exp: 0/200
HP: 20/20
Ability Energy Points: 7/20 [Reaching zero will force a deep sleep for an entire day]
....
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"That's problematic, if it reaches zero I'm doomed... assuming it won't teleport me again to my room." Ender continued looking at his hands, wondering how could he use the claws with such little energy.
"Skills." He said.
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....
[Level 1] - Claws of Fear: [Specific nails will instantly grow into resistant, long claws. In case of successfully attacking and damaging an opponent, he will enter into a fright state.]
....
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Ender re-read the information to search for any clue to lower energy consumption. When he was on his third attempt, he found a keyword. "Specific..." He muttered. Ender then took a glance at his hands again.
This time, he focus on his right index finger and called "Claws of Fear." Along with the drowsiness, The same sound went off, but this time only his right index had said grey and red smoke, and a long claw. He widened his eyes and stopped the ability while taking another look at his stats.
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Ability Energy Points: 6/20 [Reaching zero will force a deep sleep for an entire day]
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A slight smile formed the moment Ender saw the points decreasing by one, "This solves most things, still I need to be extremely careful not to waste all my Energy. I don't want to get kicked into a slumber while fighting something..."
He zoned out for some seconds while thinking about ways to use this ability, but before he could, something scratched the door of his room.
Next to the door, there was a digital clock on the wall, marking 5:32 AM.
'Still 2 hours and a half until school.' Ender got up and slowly walked towards the door, trying not to faint from exhaustion. When he opened it, a black cat entered the room. Ender instantly recognized it.
"Hey, Casper... how you doing buddy." He crouched while caressing his soft black fur. The cat started purring while closing his little yellow eyes. Ender smiled in return.
In this world, Casper was the only thing that didn't judge him. He was adopted by Ender himself when he was 13 years old after he found a dead cat with kittens surrounding her. Casper was the only one alive.
When Ender brought him home his parents couldn't care less about the cat, but they told him that if there was any trace of the cat's necessities anywhere outside his room, there would be consequences.
From that day, Ender taught Casper everything to avoid him getting the beating of his life.
Referring to food, Ender would split his daily portion in half even if the food wasn't the best one for the cat.
Whenever he had enough money, he would buy the best cat food for his little boy. Casper returned all these favors with his presence whenever Ender had some sort of emotional breakdown or panic attack.
'I can't believe I was going to kill myself... what would've happened to him.' Once again, Ender regretted that decision. He sat on the ground while letting the cat sleep on his legs and called out the System again. This time, he focused on the Tasks and Goals section.
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{Tasks}
[Daily Tasks (MANDATORY)]
[Monthly Tasks (Locked)]
[Lifetime Goals (Locked)]
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"Nothing too shiny... most of them are blocked anyways." He muttered, "Daily Tasks."
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{Daily Tasks} - 0/3
[Lift a total of fifty kilograms (Minimum weight must be one-tenth of the total)] - 0/50 kg
[Run non-stop for a total of twenty minutes (Resets on full stop)] - 0/20 minutes
[Travel 30 meters in less than 5 seconds] - 0/5 seconds
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"Yeah, just like those old RPG games. You complete tasks and receive something in return probably... hopefully I receive new abilities." Ender said while yawning.
Even though he has slept for a lot of hours the low energy he had was enough to send him to sleep again. Not only that but having to understand the system didn't help at all. Ender tried fighting the sleepiness but before he knew it, he closed his eyelids and fell asleep on the spot.
...
Only to be awakened because of the ruckus that was happening at the house. Ender rubbed his eyes and noticed that Casper was sleeping on top of the bed sheets. He looked around and the clock was now marking 7:37 AM, which meant that he had ten minutes to get ready for high school.
'What a bummer.'
He gave a big yawn before walking toward the bathroom. There he splashed some water on his face and combed his hair without any ounce of motivation.
He did notice something, a grey strand of hair. He thought that it was because of the system and walked away, he was in no mood for overthinking.
While he was changing clothes he called System again, this time going towards the Humanyc Elements section.
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{Humanyc Elements}
[Fear Manipulation]
Grade: Common
Passive Abilities:
>>Fear Vision<<
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'Hmm? Fear Vision? What does it do?' Ender thought while changing clothes.
When he thought about that, a text appeared next to the ability.
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>>Fear Vision: If needed by the host, you will see a trail leading to an injured opponent that has been attacked by the Claws of Fear. The further he is, the weaker the trail intensity is.<<
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When he changed into the high school's uniform, Ender read the information next to the ability while squinting his eyes,
'It is useful... this way I won't ever lose an enemy. But if someone knew about this ability it could become a trap... I need really careful not to arouse suspicions.'
There wasn't any other ability meaning that he had to either learn it or gain it.
Just before leaving his room, Ender once again opened his stats and noticed that the Energy was up to 20 again, meaning that sleeping was a way to recover his lost energy. 'Pretty obvious.'
Looking at the clock again, only 5 minutes had passed. Ender quickly got his spatial bracelet which had his school's utensils.
Sadly, it wasn't enough to hold everything since his family won't buy him a better bracelet, so he had to bring a backpack to school. The only student to do so.
When Ender left the room, he was greeted by a big living room, with two sofas, a big holographic TV, and a carpet, the usual.
"Remember Stella, the BB officers are coming to check on you. Make sure to use your full potential and don't make a fool of yourself, understood?" A soft, feminine voice came from the hallway leading to the exit. Looking to his left, Ender saw his mother and his sister chatting.
His mother had blonde hair and blue eyes and was in her middle forties. She was 1,65 meters tall and had this calm aura around her, giving the impression that she was, overall, a chill person.
Stella on the other hand sported cyan blue hair that reached her back and blue eyes as well. Standing at 1,73 meters tall, she gave a confident aura. She was wearing the same uniform as Ender and was ready to leave.
"I know mother, I'm the strongest Humanyc inside the high school after all. They would be blind if they didn't notice my power."
"That's what I like to hear. Have fun at school today then."
Stella nodded and then noticed Ender looking from his room and said, "Hey weak! Wish you also took part in the test so you can take the record of the weakest Humanyc!"
Stella opened the door and chuckled along with her mother, Ender on the other hand stared down at the floor in embarrassment.
It wasn't the first time something like this happened, but he couldn't get over it no matter how many times it was said. Especially from your family.
Before, Ender would just start sobbing while muttering 'Sorry', now he just felt like crying but the tears never came out. What hurts him the most was his sister's insults, as they were the most severe.
He still remembers the fun they had been children, not caring about the world. He would sacrifice everything he had to return there. But sadly this was real life, dreams never came true.
He discarded all these thoughts and walked towards the exit. His mother didn't even spare him a look or goodbye.
He exited the building and watched Stella getting on a bus. This bus was only for the best students of the high school, meaning that Ender didn't even have a chance in the first place, so he needed to walk for ten minutes until reaching the high school.
After walking for some minutes, Ender remembered one of his daily tasks. 'Wonder if I can complete it now.' He suddenly went from walking to running as fast as he could, which was really fast. Then...
*Ping!*
[Travel 30 meters in less than 5 seconds] - 4.63/5 seconds (Completed)
Ender stopped running and took some deep breaths. After hearing that sound, he found in the corner of his eye a big green hologram. He completed one of his tasks, which made him smile a little bit.
'This is going to be lots of fun...'